Day: 120-127

Day 120: Avery's first Superbowl and my first Superbowl with winnings 

Magdiel and Jaiden watching music videos before the game.

 

Sadly, I asked Kyle who was even playing in the Superbowl a week before the party. He obviously got extremely annoyed and refused to tell me...Facebook informed throughout the week (Good thing for Facebook or I might not have know all the celebrities that have died or who won the Presidential election). We did a little betting, which I never win those thing,s so I didn't think twice about my answers. But at the end of the game, I gladly walked away with $90!

Grumpy pants...maybe he was secretly a 49er's fan.

Yep the dogs are worn out! Until next year.

Day 121: Take down a 9 year old mobster
Mobster, as in a person who is a part of organized crime. Yes, that kind of mobster. Well of course, being a teacher has either heightened my curiosity or I have always just been this damn nosey. So when 6 of my students are crowded around each other, I know they are up to no good. So begins the take down....
I open the paper that everyone has now shuffled away from except the ring leader, I will call her Capone, to find a "hit list". The paper has 2 columns one titled "friends" the other titled "enemies". So I find out that the enemies list is one created for those who have been done something and those who need revenge go to Capone and ask her to get back at them. Yep, real life mobster list going on in my classroom. Shocker my name was on the enemies list... I can't imagine what I did to make someone hate me. hahahaha I make them learn, therefore I am put on the list. Anyway, through investigations and some hard core interrogation, I got Capone to break down and tell me all about her plan to get back at people on the list. It is never fun when you have to look a mom in the eye and try your hardest not to tell them that their child is pulling some evil stuff. Probably my favorite was how Capone tried to spin it all around on the class bully. Too bad I know all about manipulation.

So after taking down mobster I needed a little stress reliever:
Day 122: Acupuncture

My two besties, Shanna and Gretchen at our pre-acupuncture dinner.

 

Acupuncture is amazing. They ask you ridiculously personal questions and then plop you down on a table and put some needles in you. It was one of the coolest feelings. I instantly went into a Zen like state. I believe Shanna's words to me on the way home were "Kate I have never heard you so quiet." YEP! 



Day 123: Evacuate my home due to a fire
I am pretty sure the fire alarm gods are out there laughing at me. Within a week, my school had a fire and then my apartment complex did. Fire alarms going on at all hours of the day and night is not my ideal way to enjoy my life.

Day 124: Bulling Intervention Program: Brain Wise
According to my school statistics, I have the most bullying behavior in my classroom. So our school psychologist and I teamed up to start Brain Wise. It is an anti-bullying program to get kids to see the science behind our brains and how they work, especially if we are bullying. It is a phenomenal program that has really opened my students eyes to the fact that they are all going through something similar. (Hopefull,y Capone is taking notes)

Day 125: Monster truck rally

I am pumped!!!

 

Day 126: Samhdi yoga
A part of my "yoga practice" is to try new places and new instructors. So I went to Samhdi Yoga Center for a new enlightening. I enjoyed my yoga and the teacher was really helpful.

Day 127: Pho in celebration of Vietnamese New Year

Happy Tet from the whole gang.

Day 113-119

Day 113: Avery's 1st Christmas
Yes I know what your thinking..... Christmas is January? We obviously do things a little different in the Seeley household. But Kyle was gone for Christmas so we celebrated Avery's first Christmas when Kyle got back.

Look who got a 4 wheeler?! Cool!

He is loving it!

But shortly after, he was a goner in Grandpa Seeley's arms. So sweet!

Day 114: Fire Drill... oh no this was no drill, there's a small fire at school
As a teacher you don't actually think you will live to see the day when the fire department actually shows up for a fire drill. So to my surprise the fire alarm goes off when we were in the middle of lunch. I finally got my students outside, the sounds of the fire trucks fill the air. At this point we are all confused, especially all of fourth grade, who was finishing up lunch. I watch a group of firemen enter the building. My first thought.... was there really a fire? I came to find out later, there was a lunch mishap in the teachers lounge and mac-n-cheese caught on fire in the microwave, setting off the alarms.

Day 115: Bluff Lake
Field trip time!

Yep, that is fresh powder in the background of Bluff Lake.

OMG! LOL! Nice gloves! hahaha

Day 116: Talk my way out of a speeding ticket
I played the teacher card... yes I did! I have been pulled over many times but never actually been able to talk my way out of a ticket. Well I have finally won that battle. I dropped the "teacher" word more than

Day 117: Put my foot down at work
Now to some this might seem strange that me, Kate Seeley, can not put her foot down at work. But I work in the type of school that likes robots rather than humans. So I have become more robotic than human in this school year.
Anyway, one of my students had been suspended and I was trying to explain to him what work he was going to do during his suspension. When he just walked off. Now, at this point I am unable to follow through due to the other 25 students I have walking in the door. So I tell my principal that he just walked off. Well to my utter disbelief my principal says OK and allows it to happen. There are a lot of things that are said without words actually leaving your mouth. This was screaming disrespect.
But surprisingly I don't get that bothered until about 12 hours later when I find out that my student, while in a kindergarten classroom serving his suspension, kicked a kindergartner.
I became so enraged and immediately went straight to my principal, asking for a meeting at that moment.
He basically got an earful of how disrespectful he was by not backing me up and allowing my student to walk away. By the end of our conversation, he was apologizing and saying that he should have supported me.
A few teachers dropped their jaw when they heard that he had actually apologized. Soar 500, Kate 1. hahaha at least I am not at 0!

Day 118: Pink Hawks show
My friend Yuzo has a band called the Pink Hawks. They play African Jazz. So Magdiel, Ann and Drew and I went to the show.

Day 119: Grind my own coffee

All these years of drinking coffee and I have never ground my own coffee.

Day 106-112

Day 106: Kindergarten/4th grade Penny Project
My 4th graders teamed up with Ali's kindergarten to raise money. The kinders are learning to count to 100 and my kids are learning to give to others. The kinders counted the pennies with the help of my students and then they put it into rolls of 100. We will be donating it in a few weeks.

Sa'Mari helping out.

AJ helping William count.

This little girl doesn't talk to anyone. She is close to being mute and Leslie is so good with younger ones that he just talked and talked and finally she said a few words. Ali, the kinder teacher, was in awe.

Day 107:Martin Luther King Jr. marade
There is a tradition in Denver to march and walk from City Park to Civic Center Park in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. So I joined Bob and Barb, Magdiel's host family for the marade.

City officials placing flowers on MLK's statue in City Park.

Flag with MLK's face

Our group!

Here we are marching in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.

Day 108: Test prep
Dangle and few extra dollars in my face and I will do anything... I spend close to 13/14 hours at school but when they offered me the opportunity to help organize for TCAP (Colorado's state test), I jumped at the chance. Plus it was good for me to see what sorts of things will be on the state test for Colorado.

Day 109: Dance party with my students
I put on Chris Brown's "Don't Wake Me Up" and we had a dance party. They of course, know all the lyrics to this song so it was also a sing-a-long! It was awesome. The secretaries later asked me what the heck was going on in my classroom.

http://youtu.be/QOowQeKyNkQ

Day 110: Spanish class
So I decided I needed to push myself on my Spanish. I am going to Honduras in May to spend time with Magdiel's family and I don't want to sound like an idiot. So I started a Spanish class.

Day 111: Get off the elevator in a Vegas hotel chanting U-S-A

Sarazona and I wating outside the elevator....getting ready to chant U-S-A

 

Day 112: Play a Wheel of Fortune Slot Machine in Vegas
Sarah's rule: you walk by a $.50 Wheel of Fortune Slot machine. you gotta play it. So that's what we did. Sarah won $35 and I lost $20.

Later that night in the limo!! Oh you fancy huh?

Day 100....oh we are just getting started!

Day 100: Bull Riding competition
Before I even saw a bucking bull....

I was forced to get on a Brahma!! This guy was a beast!

OK back to why we came, the bull riding

 

Partner in crime

Awesome time watching the bull riding competition!

Day 101: Book talk with my students about hard issues:
Drinking, abuse, homelessness, you name it, it was on the table. It is especially hard to hear my students be so open about how these topics have affected them. I gave them extra big hugs today for being so brave and opening up to me!!

Day 102: Eat Lebanese food and drink Lebanese wine.

So delicious!! My mouth smelled like garlic but it was so worth it!

Day 103: Pull Jordan's tooth out of his mouth

This is Jordan, one of my student's little brothers. He comes running up to me with blood pouring out of his mouth and says "My toof!" It was barely hanging on by a thread. So I yanked it out! What a trooper he was!

Day 104: Coors Brew Tour

Malt room

Mid-tour beer, don't mind if I do.

Post-tour, again don't mind if I do.

Day 105: Translate the lyrics to "Fresh Prince of Bel Aire" into different languages.
So I am browsing twitter one day and I can across this article about Google translate. It states that it doesn't pick up the slang....In my eyes this was a stupid comment because of course it doesn't recognize slang. But I became intrigued by the article about how this guy was translating the lyrics from "The Fresh Prince of Bel Aire". Now if you are under the age of 35 you probably have already begun to sing the song..."Now this is the story about how my life got flipped turned upside down..."

I decided to run the lyrics through a few different languages myself. It is funny how they take these words and change them into something different. Then I came across this video where a guy actually sings the lyrics translated back from other languages. They ran the lyrics through all 64 featured languages in Google and then translated it back to English. The end results are classic. Check it out.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/16/fresh-prince-of-bel-air-song-through-google-translate_n_2489668.html

Day 90-99

Day 90: Visit Fort Collins: Eat at Famous Jim's Wings

Getting ready for my  mouth to be on FIRE!!

Here we go...

Yep, delicious!

Yummy!

Day 91: Karaoke
I hate singing on a stage!! Not that I have ever done it. But it strikes fear into my heart! But for Hannah's birthday I made an exception to sing "Call Me Maybe"

Shanna, Hannah, Meredith, and I jammin out!

We are obviously enjoying ourselves, maybe not as much as Hannah's brother though!

Day 92: Try a new type of Yoga
Vinyasa is one type I have never tried. So I went out on a limb and I actually went to a yoga class by myself. I am not one to go to workout classes alone, but it was amazing. So glad I went.

Day 93: Teach with an one of our professional development coaches.
Margaret Wilson is one of the authors of the many Responsive Classroom books that I use for my classroom discipline. She came into my classroom and we got to work together. It was a true pleasure for me since she is one of the professional coaches that we have that actually gives ALL positive feedback. It is a nice change from the other coaches.

Day 94: Have a teaching epiphany
So for you non-children/teachers this might seem strange that I had this epiphany about my teaching, especially since it comes 4 years into my teaching career. But I went to a yoga class and in the middle of it, I thought about how I should really change jobs. I hate having to yell at kids all day, it is very exhausting.
So I thought about becoming a yoga teacher.... no joke. I can be zen all day and get a rockin' body.

But reality struck. I actually like teaching kids. I like being with them all day and helping them grow into great people.

So flash forward to the next day when I decided to take my yoga teachers approach and speak in the most calm voice I could. I got through the entire day without raising my voice once. To some this may seem awful that all I did was yell but sadly that was how they kids worked. So when I saw our school psychologists after school and he said to me, "Wow Kate you are actually smiling after school." I knew I had to change my ways. My epiphany was how much my students feed off my energy. I decided from that moment on, my energy would be as if I was a yoga teacher. Speaking to my kids in a zen voice and about the flow of their energy.
Let me tell you, it has been an amazing turn around in my classroom.

Day 95: Buy as many Groupons in one day as I can afford: 5
I raided Groupon for every possible Groupon I would ever want...actually even the ones I might not want. I found everything from ice skating, to 2 hours of jumping on a trampoline to yoga passes, to massages and more workout classes. I set myself up for a lot of fun things to do for my project.

Day 96: Get a class pet: Baby Mouse

She apparently doesn't like humans. She is a biter!

Wheel time

Day 97: 12 person "get to know you" dinner
At Bob and Barb's house they have these dinners where you sit next to someone who is a stranger, in hopes that you get to know someone new. Then at the end of dinner, we had to share a little about ourselves and a life changing trip or experience. I shared my life changing experience was moving to Honduras and meeting Magdiel :)

Day 98: Shop at Mi Pueblo
Mi Pueblo is a Latin market where you can find foods from Mexico and Central America. It was like walking back into the grocery store in Honduras. It was amazing and the best part was getting pupusas!! Legit pupusas! So delicious.

Taking a little step back into Central America :)

Pupusas...so good!

Day 99: Eat my school cafeterias Meatloaf
(may seem innocent enough, but you haven't seen it!)
Did I also mention it was vegetarian meatloaf? So of course my students are like "WHOA Miss Kate is eating the meatloaf." So I had to put on a happy face. It was AWFUL. It literally tasted like dirt. My poor students who have to eat that on a regular basis are brave!!

Days 80-89

Day 80: Go to a fancy dinner party with my parents... ON THE WRONG DAY
There is really no way to express how much we laughed. But we got to the house and were mortified as we walked up and we were met by a young man asking us what we were doing. Not sure who asked him if the party was this night, but before we knew it, we were all running towards the car because he had told us the party was the next night. We all laughed till we cried! So instead we went to a restaurant called Seasons and had a wonderful dinner.

Day81: Go to a fancy dinner party with my parents... On the right day!

Magdiel and I enjoying delicious food and great company

Day 82: Visit the oldest church in the United States

San Miguel Church in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Magdiel and I in front of the church. 

Day 83: Go to catholic church mass in Santa Fe at St. Francis Cathedral.

One of the most beautiful churches in Santa Fe. 

But we couldn't help ourselves....we went shopping for some Native American jewelery after church. 

Magdiel posing with the Indian statue. 

The lady we bought jewelry from. 

Day 84: Make a sign for airport pick up
Who wouldn't love to be greeted by an obnoxious sign at the airport??? Well I love them and decided we needed to make one for Kristin when she came to Denver to visit us...
For the one person who hates birds, we decided to put a bird on it, literally. I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of our master piece of a sign. But you can only imagine the beauty it held!

Day 85: Go Salsa Dancing for New Years

Kristin and I before we headed out to La Rumba for some salsa dancing. 

Sweet love :)

Day 86: New Years Day movie marathon with pizza and ice cream
It was the perfect day to lounge around, eat pizza and ice cream and watch a TONE of movies. Day well spent.

Day 87:Visit Buffalo Bills grave
Buffalo Bill was known for many things back in the 1800's but I knew him best for his work on the Pony Express, carrying mail from Missouri crossing the great Plains and the Rocky Mountains. So why not go to his grave and take in the beautiful scenery surrounding his grave.

We made it!!

The beautiful view from Buffalo Bill's grave. 

Day 88: Apply for CO teaching license
Colorado teaching license here I come!!!

Day 89: Read Quien Fue Pablo Picasso? A biography on the late artist in Spanish
Picasso had an amazing life and it is very fascinating reading about him in Spanish. I have learned lots of new vocabulary from it.